| Posted by: Milo at January 24, 2008, 6:31 am | | Topic: Sundance: August, Be Kind Rewind, Gonzo Forum: Film Hobbit | | I share your fear of censorship (and taxation) of the Internet, but it is much more likely to come from government. It's already subject to oversight by the US Dept. of Commerce. But my attitude is very positive that it's a source of freedom that the people will not be willing to trade away or lose through apathy. (I could be wrong. Kiddie-porn could be the foot in the door.) In any case, it has an interesting premise and I hope to get a chance to see it when (if?) it receives a wider release. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: Josh at January 24, 2008, 3:25 am | | Topic: Sundance: August, Be Kind Rewind, Gonzo Forum: Film Hobbit | | I suggest nothing, I'm merely saying that this grand idea of competition in business that we all have isn't really the reality. In the case of the internet, it's resulted in an internet which is headed towards corporate control, censorship, and the stifling of free speech instead of the wide open, global channel of communication and independence which people before the dot com bust had dreamed it up as. That dream is now dead. I don't know how to fix it, or keep it from happening again, I only know it's always what happens and it's just the way things are, always have been, and probably always will be. Capitalism ain't perfect, and capitalism does not always = fair market competition. But WTF do I know, I'm a film critic, no an economist. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: Milo at January 23, 2008, 11:25 pm | | Topic: Sundance: August, Be Kind Rewind, Gonzo Forum: Film Hobbit | | Quote: Originally Posted by Josh) Are we talking about a system in which whoever delivers the best product and the best service wins? Because that's not what we have. For instance, in the case of August you have a company which has come up with a superior product and provides a superior service, but is swallowed up by old money, corporate sharks... and is pretty much powerless to prevent it. Wish I could say I believed your heart wasn't in the right place, but I don't. Like I said, the system ain't perfect and we do have hostile takeovers; but it's better than any alternative--and we are talking about a fictional look at a hard case here. We have laws governing corporations including anti-trust, and if that fails can we blame anything but human fallibility, the same as individual crime on a corporate scale for which they should be brought to trial, or government corruption reacting to a public that remains apathetic until the s**t hits the fan? Quote: There are of course always exceptions, and those exceptio... | | Read Entire Entry |
| Posted by: Josh at January 23, 2008, 9:26 pm | | Topic: Sundance: August, Be Kind Rewind, Gonzo Forum: Film Hobbit | | Depends on what you mean by competition. Are we talking about a system in which whoever delivers the best product and the best service wins? Because that's not what we have. For instance, in the case of August you have a company which has come up with a superior product and provides a superior service, but is swallowed up by old money, corporate sharks... and is pretty much powerless to prevent it. That doesn't seem like fair competition to me. It seems like people who have money using their money to swallow UP the competition. Corporate mergers and buyouts are all about stopping competition. There are of course always exceptions, and those exceptions survive to become companies like Microsoft and Google... except... whoops even those companies got where they are by swallowing up other people, not necessarily by delivering a better service or a better product. Instead, they bought other people's better products and made them their own. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: Milo at January 23, 2008, 7:12 am | | Topic: Sundance: August, Be Kind Rewind, Gonzo Forum: Film Hobbit | | How did they make it where they are without being snatched up themselves? Competition is a two-edged sword, but it's the best system we've got and usually produces the best product/service. If you remove competition or make an artificially level playing field, what have you got? A politically correct bureaucracy, or worse. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: Milo at January 23, 2008, 6:21 am | | Topic: Sundance: August, Be Kind Rewind, Gonzo Forum: Film Hobbit | | Josh wrote: Quote: August But in a broader sense it’s about the death of a dream, the dream that the internet represented for about five minutes, until the same old wealthy corporations snatched everything up and turned it into just another way for the rich to get richer. As CB's libertarian/capitalist pariah, I feel it incumbent on me to point out that many of those dreamers founded new wealthy corporations, e.g., Microsoft, Google, Apple, and there's still plenty of new up and comers like Cinemablend. The dream is still alive and kicking, albeit with the inept, the fearful and the unlucky being left as bloody pulps in the ditches along life's unfair road. I should know. And I wouldn't have had it any other way. | | Static Link |
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